The military education system that brought Kelly to this point failed both him and the democracy he ostensibly joined to serve. If there is an upside, it is in highlighting the ongoing dysfunction of civil-military relations and the role of retirees in promoting that dysfunction. https://twitter.com/MrWalterShapiro/status/1302038181911695361

For starters, Kelly is a politician. FORMERLY serving in the military does not count as a ‘get out of jail free card’ when you’ve entered the political fray. That he sees it as such is insulting to American democracy (& an exceptionally weak way to avoid personal accountability).

Secondly, his attitude reflects how the military has conflated political 'neutrality' with 'superiority' and, in the process, inverted the very idea of service to democracy.

In viewing themselves as Generals, not politicians, both Mattis and Kelly attempted for the best of both worlds -- wanting to be seen as 'serving' but not held to the same standards of accountability as their political counterparts.

This was a too-cute way of setting themselves up for the inevitable postmortems, where they could point to all the bad things that 'didn't' happen because they were there. But in doing so they lent not just themselves, but their stars to Trump.

Each was used for their rank and perceived legitimacy at a point when Trump needed it most. They may think they prevented bad things, but they also bought time for everything that happened after they joined the team. They own this.

That Kelly is in the fray now and faces pressure to speak is no cause for pity for him, but should absolutely lead to some introspection about how military officers view politics – and how they use their military identities to engage politics. /end rant